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HMS Nottingham aground

AM Archive - Monday, 8 July , 2002 00:00:00

Reporter: Michael Vincent

HAMISH ROBERTSON: A maritime emergency involving a British warship has been unfolding this morning in Australian waters. The destroyer, HMS Nottingham, ran aground and suffered significant damage, two nautical miles east of world-heritage listed Lord Howe Island, off the coast of New South Wales.

Late last night, in circumstances that are now under investigation, several compartments of the warship were holed and began taking water after it struck a nautical hazard known as Wolf Rocks. The Australian Navy is airlifting pumps and a dive team to the island to assist in repairing the British ship.

Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Lord Howe Island locals say it was pitch black with no moon, rough sees and a 20-knot strong wind when HMS Nottingham ran across Wolf Rocks some three kilometres offshore. The ship had been transferring a sick sailor to the island and it was returning to deeper waters when it struck the rock shelf, ripping its hull open and damaging its steering.

The Royal Navy says there were no injuries to the 250-strong crew, but a number of watertight compartments were flooded. After pumping, the ship was able to be refloated and is now anchored nearby.

Back on the mainland Australian authorities were initially panicked about the extent of the damage. A Royal Australian Airforce Hercules has been sent to the island with extra pumps and an Australian Navy dive team which will assess the damage later this morning.

David Grey from the Australia Maritime Safety Authority.

DAVID GREY: I mean when it first happened, late last night, early last night, there was a bit of a panic to see how much water it was taking on. At that stage they hadn't made anchor and they've got damaged steering gear. So that was a big concern.

But they did get plank very close to shore. We really don't know how much damage there is until the divers get underneath and internally they can assess how much water they're taking.

MICHAEL VINCENT: You mentioned damaged steering gear, does that mean they may have to be towed back to the mainland?

DAVID GREY: Well that could be on the cards. Obviously once the damage is set to right, towards the end of the day, we may get the appropriate people on board to sort of assess the damage and then actually where they can get to for repairs. They might have to do some minor repairs out there, but it depends how badly damaged the steering gear is and the hole in the hull.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Is there any concern about pollution at this stage? Have they been able to deploy any buoys to stop any fuel if anything has leaked?

DAVID GREY: We do have concerns, obviously war ships carry alot of fuel oil and we flew an aircraft out last night and this morning we will be checking all around the ship and the coastline of the east coast of the island to check to see if there's any sign of any oil anywhere.

MICHAEL VINCENT: This sort of incident, when was the last time that a foreign navy ship ran aground off the coast of Australia?

DAVID GREY: I would've asked certain people in the centre, we don't have any details on that I'm afraid, it's a very rare occurrence.